A Night's Wish
by petepetlove
Summary: A beautifull new girl with a sad and mysterious past comes to Hoqwarts, trying to escape her destiny.


**A Night's Wish**

_**Chapter One: Stranger**_

I step on the train with a trembling foot. It is the first time that I am about to set off to school without my beloved parents to hold me and say goodbye till the next holiday, the first time since I came to Britain, to be in the care of Aunt Lillibeth. The first time since my parents' horrible death.

I look back at Platform 9 ¾, in search of my Aunt, but she's already Disapparated. I shouldn't have expected anything else: since I was placed under her care, Aunt Lillibeth has done nothing to make me feel welcome or loved. Don't get me wrong: it isn't like she is mistreating or neglecting me; but her hate for my poor Mother prevents her from having any sort of affection for me. She merely acknowledges my existence, and acts accordingly: she's given me a home, foods, clothes, but not love. I can feel her dislike in her stare, in the way she avoids me whenever possible. It's more frustrating than if she actually ill-treated me, it feels like living secluded in a golden cage.

It was with mixed feeling that I awaited my leave for Hogwarts: I was anxious to leave Aunt Lillibeth house – more a Manor, really –, but at the same time I was afraid of what I could find there. I had studied for six years at Fenakton School for Witches and Wizards, where I had many good friends, and I didn't know what to expect from Hogwarts. Would I be welcome? Would my studies be enough to be at the same levels of the other seventh-years? I probably shouldn't have worried about that, since I had always been a brilliant student, but I couldn't help. I guess I'm about to prove my fears right or wrong by finally carrying my trunk on board.

I make my way on the train, receiving strange looks from most of the older students, who are probably wondering who is this girl they have never seen before. I pluck a lock of my pale blond, wavy, mid-back-length hair and play with it to find a source of distraction while I move further down the train, in search of a quiet, and hopefully empty, compartment.

I reach to the end of the train, dragging my trunk behind. There is no empty compartment, and I surely don't want to sit with some snivelling eleven year-old who has no clue of what's going on, despite not knowing it that well myself. I can as well find a spot here in the last carriage, as I really don't feel like marching all the way down the train again. I timidly open the door of one compartment and peek in.

Two girls are sitting in it, quietly chatting. They raise their eyes to look at me inquiringly. I cough lightly before talking.

"I was wandering if I could sit here," I say gingerly. The two girls look at each other for a moment.

"Yeah, no problem," says the one with dark red hair smiling, as she begins to remove their stuff from the seats in front of them, so that I can sit there. I smile in response, and enter the compartment. The other girl, who has stunning purple hair, helps me arrange my trunk in the rack above, and finally we sit down. I smile timidly, feeling the girls' stares on me.

"I think I never saw you, did I?" the redhead asks, with a tone that doesn't express hostility, but just a friendly curiosity.

"You didn't. I just transferred here from the US of A."

My answer seems to pick the purple-haired girl's curiosity.

"Really? When did you come to the UK? Why did you transfer? What school did you…"

My face must have shown something at the mention of the reason why I was now attending Hogwarts, instead of my old school in the US of A, because the redhead elbowed her friend to make her shut up.

"I'm sorry," the girl quickly said, recognising her gaffe, "Big mouth, me. Never shut up. I'm Carol, by the way, and she's Lily, _our new Head Girl_…"

The redhead, Lily, elbowed again Carol, this time for her teasing, before turning to me. "She really never shuts up," she says smiling, nodding huffily towards her friend. "As she said, I'm Lily. And you are…"

She stretches her arm towards me. "I'm Nephrite," I say, shaking it.

Many would say that Nephrite Stardust is a shy and reserved girl. But as I sit with Lily and Carol, chatting and laughing, I feel more happy and relaxed than I've ever been in a long, long time. I feel more at ease now, with these two girls I've just met, than I'll ever feel with Aunt Lillibeth. It's really relaxing, I haven't had the chance to talk to someone my age in a lot.

Lily is now explaining me the duties of being Hogwarts Head Girl, and I can see how passionate she is about it, she talks in such a powerful and exciting way that I'm totally absorbed in what she's saying. So absorbed that I notice something has happened only when Lily's voice change abruptly.

"And when we attend Staff Meeting we can report _what do you want, Potter?_"

I turn my head towards the door of the compartment, to find four faces peering in. I guess the Potter Lily seems to despise so much is either one of the two black haired boys with a smug smile on their faces. One has unruly black hair and wears glasses over stunning ice blue eyes, the other has his longish hair pulled in a ponytail and smirking, cold grey eyes. At their right stand other two boys, one with sandy hair and a tired face, but with lively amber eyes, but he's not the one that catches my attention.

Next to him there is the most beautiful boy I have ever seen. He's not very tall, he must be around 5 feet and a half, and under his shirt, in his lean frame, I can guess strong and firm muscles. He has rich, slightly curly chestnut brown hair and his eyes are vivacious and sparkling, of a deep, golden brown, like two large pools of chocolate I'd like to drown in. Two golden brown eyes that are currently looking into my own sapphire blue ones. I see a hint of a smile playing on his thin, pink lips.

Oh dear, I've been staring at him! I feel a sudden hotness in my cheeks, as I furiously blush, and look for something else to gaze.

"Now, now, Evans, if we're going to be Head Boy and Head Girl together I think we have to drop formalities," the glass wearing boy says. So _this_ is Potter. "You can call me James, and I'll call you Lily."

"In your wishes, _Potter_," Lily sneers. "And you haven't asked permission to come in, so if you please…"

Potter smiles sweetly to her. "You're very cute when you get angry, Evans," he teases.

Lily seems to be someone who doesn't take teasing very well, or maybe it's just Potter's teasing she can't stand.

"Well. I'll see you in the Prefects' Carriage later, Potter," she cuts off, standing and going to slide the compartment door right in Potter's face. Behind the glass, Potter is giving her a hurtful puppy look, that only makes Lily more fuming. She draws the curtains so forcefully that one of them breaks. She sits down muttering _Reparo_, her wand directed at the tore tissue, that is promptly rewoven by magic.

"Who were those guys?" I ask curious, trying to force the blush away from my cheeks.

"That was James Potter, Head Boy –" says Carol.

"Huge Boaster," interjects Lily, caustic.

"– of Hogwarts, with his friends –"

"Mob…"

"_Friends_," wearily repeats Carol.

"Excuse her," Lily tells me, "she only talks this way because she's desperately in love with Black, Potter's sidekick."

"Black?" I ask, hoping he's not the cause of my blush.

"Sirius Black was the one next to Potter," Carol answers, with a bit of a dreamy smile on her lips. "And excuse her, she only acts this way because she doesn't realise that she likes Potter."

Lily becomes so red I think she's about to explode. Which, in fact, she does. "I do not!" she practically screams.

"See?" Carol asks me, smug.

I smile: Lily has crossed her arms on her chest and furrowed her brow like a five year old. I try to change the subject to discover something of James Potter's handsome friend. "And the other two?"

"The one beside Sirius was Remus Lupin, strange boy, always quiet," Carol explains me. "The other is Peter Pettigrew, there isn't much about him, really. He's always tagging along James and Sirius. They're all in our House , Gryffindor."

"Peter…" I whisper to myself, looking out of the window. I thing there is a lot about him.

**Next:**

_Chapter Two: Love At First Sight Doesn't Exist_

"You are very loyal to your friends, and not afraid to work hard. But there is also a lot of bravery in face of the adversities. Where shall I put you then? Hufflepuff or Gryffindor?" the Hat muses.

_Please let it be Gryffindor_, I think as hard as I can. Lily and Carol are both in Gryffindor. As is Peter.

**A/N:** Here was the first chapter, what do you think about it? Let me know it! Review, email me, snail mail me, send pigeons (or owls – I'll feed them and send 'em back!)…

You'll have to wait for a (long) while for the second chapter, I'm afraid. I'm flying to my Dad's home for at least a month, and he won't surely let me use his company notebook to type and upload my stories… Sigh! But I think I can lure him into letting me check my mail…

See you next time!


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